WO1995035335A1

WO1995035335A1 - Thermoplastic elastomer

Info

Publication number: WO1995035335A1
Application number: PCT/EP1995/002207
Authority: WO
Inventors: Konrad Knoll; Hermann Gausepohl; Norbert Niessner; Dietmar Bender; Paul Naegele
Original assignee: Basf Aktiengesellschaft
Priority date: 1994-06-17
Filing date: 1995-06-08
Publication date: 1995-12-28
Also published as: CA2193264A1; US6031053A; ES2170153T3; DE59509944D1; MX9606522A; EP0766706A1; JPH10501833A; CA2193264C; JP3539967B2; KR100371886B1; TW407161B; DE4420952A1; EP0766706B1

Abstract

A rubber elastic block copolymer has at least one block A made of polymerised units of a vinyl aromatic monomer that forms a hard phase and/or a block B with diene monomers that forms a first rubber elastic (soft) phase, and at least one elastomer block B/A with polymerised units of both a vinyl aromatic monomer and a diene that forms if required a second or additional soft phase. The glass transition temperature Tg of block A is higher than 25 °C and that of blocks B or B/A is lower than 25 °C. The phase volume ratio between blocks A and B/A is selected so that the hard phase represents 1 - 40 % by volume of the total block copolymer and the diene amounts to less than 50 % by weight.

Description

Thermoplastic elastomer

description

Block copolymers of vinyl aromatics (e.g. styrene) and dienes (e.g. butadiene) are copolymers from several strung together or otherwise linked polymer molecule areas (so-called blocks), which are more or less uniformly constructed. Depending on the structure and content of diene monomers - at a certain temperature - they can be altogether elastomeric, i.e. have rubber-elastic properties or stiff, non-rubber-elastic properties, i.e. to the outside, they behave either rubber-elastic, similar to a polydiene, and have e.g. as a so-called SB rubber meaning, or like transparent, impact-resistant styrene polymers. It is common, based on the designations of impact-modified polystyrene, to designate those parts of the molecule which determine the rubber-elastic behavior as the soft phase and the rigid parts of the molecule (the pure polystyrene part) as the hard phase. SB-Rubber cannot be processed like thermoplastics, but must be processed like ordinary diene polymers are vulcanized for use, which severely limits their use.

The invention normally relates to block copolymers of vinyl aromatics and dienes which can be processed purely thermoplastic and have elastomeric behavior and special mechanical properties.

The following should be sent in advance:

The anionic polymerization leading to so-called living polymers, in which the growth of a chain molecule takes place at one end of the chain, which theoretically lives for any length of time due to the lack of a spontaneous chain termination or transfer reaction (and remains capable of polymerization), and the implementation of life ¬ the polymers with mono- or polyfunctional reactants are known to offer a versatile option for building block copolymers, although the choice of monomers is limited; in practice, only block copolymers of vinyl aromatic compounds, ie styrene and its derivatives on the one hand and dienes, essentially butadiene or isoprene on the other hand, have gained importance. Block copolymers are obtained by polymerizing in each case to approximately the exhaustion of a monomer supply and then changing the monomer or monomers. This process can be repeated several times. Linear block copolymers are described, for example, in U.S. Patents 3,507,934 and 4,122,134. Star-shaped block copolymers are known, for example, from US Pat. Nos. 4,086,298; 4,167,545 and 3,639,517.

The property profile of these block copolymers is essentially determined by the content of polymerized diene monomers, i.e. Length, arrangement and quantitative ratio of polydiene and polystyrene blocks characterized. In addition, the type of transition between different blocks plays an important role: sharp and so-called tapered transitions are known, depending on whether the monomer change takes place abruptly or gradually. In the latter case, a more or less statistical sequence length distribution occurs.

Block copolymers with sharply separated blocks, with identical molecular weight and diene content, are less viscous than those with smeared block transition. If one wants to get tougher block copolymers, block transitions with statistical sequence length distribution of diene and vinyl aromatics in the transition region are therefore preferred (cf. US Pat. No. 4,122,134 and EP-A-0 316 671).

Morphological studies of block copolymers show that when the block transition is smeared, the sequence length of the pure diene phase is shifted relative to the polystyrene phase and thus the volume ratio is shifted in favor of the diene phase. The type of block transition can therefore increase the toughness of a polymer without the diene content having to be increased. This can be advantageous since the flowability of the melt and the thermostability of the polymers decrease with increasing diene content and the risk of crosslinking of the diene phase increases. In injection molding and extrusion processing, crosslinking is noticeable through so-called specks and cloudiness in the polymer.

The achievement of smeared block transitions by controlled change of the monomer addition is now technically complex and leads to a longer reaction time or a lower space-time yield, which increases the production costs. In the limit case, the continuously controlled addition (cf. US Pat. Nos. 4,346,198 and 4,248,984), the reaction time increases extremely because of the unfavorable position of the copolymerization parameters of vinyl aromatics and dienes, and only polymers with an inhomogeneous distribution of the diene and vinyl aromatics are obtained. Units in the area of the block transition, which has the effect of increasing the number of transitions. This becomes clear from a low glass transition temperature (T _g below -50 ° C, see US Pat. No. 4,346,198, Example 1) and poor processing properties. In particular, materials with a diene content of over 35% by weight, which due to their property profile (toughness, transparency, gas permeability) would be suitable for medical applications such as infusion tubes, infusion drip chambers and stretch films, are very difficult to achieve by profile extrusion, injection molding or tubular film extrusion to process; despite stabilization with antioxidants and free radical scavengers, they are also thermally very sensitive and tend to stickiness, so that additives have to be used with great effort. The so-called blocking (gluing of foils and tubes on the roll) and poor demoldability can make processing by injection molding completely impossible.

The object of the invention is to obtain, by suitable choice of the molecular structure, elastomeric, ie rubber-elastic, block copolymers which are easy to manufacture on an industrial scale, have a maximum of toughness with a low diene content and, moreover, like thermoplastics on extruders and Injection molding machines are easy to process.

According to the invention, this is expressed, in general terms, by the fact that in a vinylaromatic-diene block copolymer from blocks which form a hard phase (block type A) and those which form a soft phase, a block B is substituted for a pure polydiene block as the soft phase / A can occur from diene and vinyl aromatic units, which has a statistical structure. The statistical average along the chain can be homogeneous or inhomogeneous.

Immediate subject matter of the invention is a rubber-elastic block copolymer composed of at least one polymerized unit of a vinyl aromatic monomer having a hard phase-forming block A and / or a diene monomer having a first, rubber-elastic (soft) phase forming block B and at least one polymerized unit of one vinyl aromatic monomers and a diene-containing elastomeric block B / A forming a soft phase, the glass temperature T _g of block A being above 25 ° C. and that of blocks B and B / A being below 25 ° C. and the phase volume ratio of block A to block B / A is selected such that the hard phase in the entire block copolymer is 1-40 volume% and the weight fraction of the diene is less than 50% by weight.

Such a rubber-elastic block copolymer according to the invention is obtained by forming the soft phase from a statistical copolymer of a vinylaromatic with a diene within the scope of the above parameters; statistical copoly Merisates of vinyl aromatics and dienes are obtained by polymerization in the presence of a polar cosolvent.

A block copolymer according to the invention can e.g. can be represented by one of the general formulas 1 to 11:

(1) (A-B / A) n;

(2) (A-B / A) n-A;

(3) B / A- (A-B / A) n; (4) X- [(A-B / A) n] m + 1;

(5) X- [(B / A-A) n] m + 1;

(6) X- [(A-B / A) n-A] m + 1;

(7) X- [(B / A-A) n-B / A] m + 1;

(8) Y- [(A-B / A) n] m + 1; (9) Y- [(B / A-A) n] m + 1;

(10) Y- [(A-B / A) n-A] m + 1;

(11) Y- [(B / A-A) n-B / A] m + 1;

where A stands for the vinylaromatic block and B / A for the soft phase, that is the block constructed statistically from diene and vinylaromatic units, X the rest of an n-functional initiator, Y the rest of an m-functional coupling agent and m and n are natural numbers from 1 to 10.

Preferred is a block copolymer of one of the general formulas AB / AA, X - [- B / AA] 2 and Y - [- B / AA] 2 (meaning of the abbreviations as above) and particularly preferably a block copolymer, whose soft phase is divided into blocks

(12) (B / A)! - (B / A) ₂ ;

(13) (B / A) ₁ - (B / A) ₂ - (B / A) ₁ ;

(14) (B / A) i- (B / A) ₂ - (B / A) ₃ ;

whose vinylaromatic / diene ratio in the individual blocks B / A is different or changes within a block within the limits (B / A) ι <(B / A) ₂ continuously, the glass transition temperature T _g each Partial blocks is below 25 ° C.

A block copolymer which has several blocks B / A and / or A with different molecular weights per molecule is also preferred.

Likewise, a block B can take the place of a block A composed exclusively of vinylaromatic units, since the only thing that matters is that a rubber-elastic one Block copolymer is formed. Such copolymers can have, for example, the structure (15) to (18)

(15) B- (B / A) (16) (B / A) -B- (B / A)

(17) (B / A) ι-B- ^{ B / A) ₂

(18) B- (B / A) i- (B / A) ₂ .

Block copolymers according to the invention are outstandingly suitable for the production of rubber-elastic molded parts by the usual methods of thermoplastic processing, e.g. as film, foam, thermoforming, injection molding or profile extrudate.

Preferred vinyl aromatic compound for the purposes of the invention is styrene and also α-methylstyrene and vinyltoluene and

Mixtures of these compounds. Preferred dienes are butadiene and isoprene, also piperylene, 1-phenylbutadiene and mixtures of these compounds.

A particularly preferred monomer combination is butadiene and styrene. All of the weight and volume information below relates to this combination; when using the technical equivalents of styrene and butadiene, you may have to convert the information accordingly.

The B / A block is constructed from approximately 75-30% by weight of styrene and 25-70% by weight of butadiene. A soft block particularly preferably has a butadiene content between 35 and 70% and a styrene content between 65 and 30%.

The proportion by weight of diene in the entire block copolymer is 15-65% by weight in the case of the styrene / butadiene monomer combination, and correspondingly that of the vinylaromatic component is 85-35% by weight. Butadiene-styrene block copolymers with a monomer composition of 25-60% by weight of diene and 75-40% by weight of vinylaromatic compound are particularly preferred.

According to the invention, the block copolymers are prepared by anionic polymerization in a non-polar solvent with the addition of a polar cosolvent. There is the idea that the cosolvent acts as a Lewis base over the metal cation. Aliphatic hydrocarbons such as cyclohexane or methylcyclohexane are preferably used as solvents. Polar aprotic compounds such as ethers and tertiary amines are preferred as Lewis bases. Examples of particularly effective ethers are tetrahydrofuran and aliphatic polyethers such as diethylene glycol dimethyl ether. As tert. Amines are tributyl to call a in and pyridine. The polar cosolvent is added to the non-polar solvent in a small amount, for example from 0.5 to 5% by volume. Tetrahydrofuran is particularly preferred in an amount of 0.1-0.3% by volume. Experience has shown that an amount of about 0.2% by volume is sufficient in most cases.

The copolymerization parameters and the proportion of 1,2 or 1,4 linkages of the diene units are determined by the dosage and structure of the Lewis base. The polymers of the invention have e.g. a share of 15 - 40% in 1,2 links and 85 - 60% in 1,4 links based on all diene units.

The anionic polymerization is initiated using organometallic compounds. Compounds of alkali metals, particularly lithium, are preferred. Examples of initiators are methyl lithium, ethyl lithium, propyllithium, n-butyllithium, sec. Butyllithium and tert. Butyllithium. The organometallic compound is added as a solution in a chemically inert (inert) hydrocarbon. The dosage depends on the desired molecular weight of the polymer, but is generally in the range from 0.002 to 5 mol% if it is based on the monomers.

The polymerization temperature can be between 0 and 130 ° C. The temperature range between 30 and 100 ° C. is preferred.

The volume fraction of the soft phase in the solid is of decisive importance for the mechanical properties. According to the invention, the volume fraction of the soft phase built up from diene and vinyl aromatic sequences is 60-95%, preferably 70-90% and particularly preferably 80-90% by volume. The blocks A formed from the vinyl aromatic monomers form the hard phase, the volume fraction of which corresponds to 5-40, preferably 10-30 and particularly preferably 10-20% by volume.

It should be noted that there is no strict correspondence between the above-mentioned quantitative ratios of vinylaromatic compound and diene, the limit values of the phase volumes and the composition given above, which result from the ranges of the glass temperature according to the invention, since they are in full tens rounded numerical values. Rather, this could only happen accidentally.

The volume fraction of the two phases can be measured by means of contrasted electron microscopy or solid-state NMR spectroscopy. The proportion of the vinyl aromatic blocks can be determined by osmium breakdown of the polydiene fraction by precipitation and weighing. The future phase ratio of a polymer can also be calculated from the amounts of monomer used if it is allowed to polymerize completely each time.

For the purposes of the invention, the block copolymer is clearly defined by the quotient of the volume fraction in percent of the soft phase formed from the B / A blocks and the fraction of diene units in the soft phase which are between 25 and 70% by weight for the styrene / butadiene combination .% lies.

The glass transition temperature (T _g ) is influenced by the static incorporation of the vinylaromatic compounds into the soft block of the block copolymer and the use of Lewis bases during the polymerization. A glass transition temperature between -50 and + 25 ° C, preferably -50 to + 5 ° C is typical.

The molecular weight of block A is generally between 1000 to 200,000, preferably between 3,000 and 80,000 [g / mol]. A blocks can have different molecular weights within one molecule.

The molecular weight of block B / A is usually between 2,000 and 250,000 [g / mol], values between 5,000 and 150,000 tg / mol are preferred.

Block B / A, like block A, can also have different molecular weight values within one molecule.

The coupling center X is created by the reaction of the living anionic chain ends with an at least bifunctional one

Coupling agent formed. Examples of such compounds are found in U.S. Patents 3,985,830, 3,280,084, 3,637,554 and 4,091,053. For example, epoxidized glycerides such as epoxidized linseed oil or soybean oil are used; divinylbenzene is also suitable. Dichlorodialkylsilanes, dialdehydes such as terephthalaldehyde and esters such as ethyl formate or benzoate are particularly suitable for dimerization.

Preferred polymer structures are AB / AA, X - [- B / AA] ₂ and Y - [- B / AA] ₂ , the statistical block B / A itself again being in blocks B1 / A1-B2 / A2-B3 / A3- ... can be divided. The statistical block preferably consists of 2 to 15 statistical sub-blocks, particularly preferably 3 to 10 sub-blocks. The division of the statistical block B / A into as many sub-blocks Bn / An as possible offers the decisive advantage that even with a composition gradient within a sub-block Bn / An, as is only the case in anionic polymerization under practical conditions difficult to avoid (see below), the B / A block behaves as an almost perfect statistical polymer. It therefore makes sense to add less than the theoretical amount of Lewis base, which increases the proportion of 1,4-diene linkages, lowers the glass transition temperature T _g and reduces the susceptibility to crosslinking of the polymer. A larger or a smaller proportion of the sub-blocks can be equipped with a high proportion of diene. This means that the polymer retains its residual toughness even below the glass transition temperature of the predominant B / A blocks and does not become completely brittle.

The block copolymers according to the invention have a spectrum of properties which is very similar to that of plasticized PVC, but can be produced completely free of migratable, low molecular weight plasticizers. They are characterized by a high oxygen permeation P ₀ and water vapor permeation P _w of over 2,000 [cm ³ -100 μ / m ² -d-bar] and over 10 [g 100 μm / m ² -d-bar], where Po is the amount of oxygen in cm ³ and P _{w is} the amount of hydrogen in grams that pass through 1 m ^{2 of} film with a standard thickness of 100 μ per day and per bar partial pressure difference.

A high resilience for deformation, as observed with thermoplastic elastomers, high transparency (over 90% with a layer thickness of 10 μm), a low welding temperature of less than 120 ° C and a wide welding range (over 5 ° C) With moderate stickiness, the block copolymers according to the invention make a suitable starting material for the production of so-called stretch or stretch films, infusion tubes and other extruded, injection-molded, thermoformed or blow-molded finished parts, for which high transparency and toughness are required, in particular for applications in Field of medical technology.

The polymerization is carried out in several stages and in the case of monofunctional initiation e.g. started with the production of the Hart block A. Some of the monomers are placed in the reactor and the polymerization is started by adding the initiator. In order to achieve a defined chain structure which can be calculated from the monomer and initiator dosage, it is advisable to carry out the process up to a high conversion (over 99%) before the second monomer is added. However, this is not absolutely necessary.

The sequence of the monomer addition depends on the selected block structure. In the case of monofunctional initiation, for example, the vinylaromatic compound is either initially introduced or metered in directly. After that, diene and vinyl aromatic should be be added early. The statistical structure and the composition of block B / A are determined by the quantitative ratio of diene to vinylaromatic compound, the concentration and chemical structure of the Lewis base and the temperature. According to the invention, the diene takes up a proportion by weight of 25% to 70% relative to the total mass including vinyl aromatic compound. Block A can then be polymerized by adding the vinylaromatic. Instead, the required polymer blocks can also be connected to one another by the coupling reaction. In the case of bifunctional initiation, the B / A block is built up first, followed by the A block.

Further processing takes place according to the usual procedures. It is advisable to work in a stirred kettle and to protonate the carbanions with an alcohol such as isopropanol, to make the acid weakly acidic with CO ₂ / water before further work-up, to polymerize with an oxidation inhibitor and a radical scavenger (commercially available products such as Stabilize trisnonylphenyl phosphite (TNPP) or α-tocopherol (vitamin E) or products available under the trade name Irganox 1076 or Irganox 3052), remove the solvent by the usual methods, extrude and granulate. Like other types of rubber, the granulate can be protected against sticking with an antiblocking agent such as Acrawax ^® , Besquare ^® or Aerosil ^® .

Examples

For each example, a simultaneously heatable and coolable 50 1 stainless steel autoclave, which was equipped with a Kreuzbaiken stirrer, was flushed with nitrogen, boiled with a solution of sec-butyllithium and 1,1-diphenylethylene (molar ratio 1: 1) Prepared cyclohexane and drying.

Then 22.8 l each of cyclohexane were introduced and the amounts of initiator, tetrahydrofuran and monomers given in Table 1 were added. The duration of the polymerization, start and end temperatures are also given, it being noted that the monomer feed time was always short compared to the polymerization time.

The temperature of the reaction mixture was controlled by heating or cooling the reactor jacket. After the reaction had ended (consumption of the monomers), titration was carried out in Examples 1-10 with ethanol, in Example 11 with ethyl formate and in Example 12 with epoxidized linseed oil to colorlessness or in Examples 11 and 12 until light yellow and the Mix with one 1.5 times excess of formic acid made acidic. Recently, 34 g of a commercial stabilizer (Irganox ^® 3052 from Ciba-Geigy, Basle) and 82 g of trisnonylphenylphosphite sets zuge¬.

The solution was worked up on a degassing extruder (three domes, forward and backward degassing) at 200 ° C. and granulated. The granules were mixed in a fluid mixer with 10 g Acrawax * ¹ as external lubrication.

Table 1: Polymerization and analysis of linear S-SB-S block copolymers and a star block copolymer (Ex. 12)

Ex. 1 Ex. 2 Ex. 3 Ex. 4 Ex. 5 Ex. 6

THF (ml) 65.8 65.8 65.8 65.8 65.8 45.6 s-BuLi (ml) 42 42 42 42 42 42

Styrene 1 (g) 1008 1008 1008 1008 1008 1008 T (A) / T (E) (° C) 30/70 30/70 30/77 30/70 30/70 30/70 time (min) 30 30 12 30 30 30

Butadiene 1 (g) 1120 1120 1120 1120 1120 1120 styrene 2 (g) 1412 1412 1412 1412 1412 1412 T (A) / T (E) (° C) 56/73 68/96 77/102 68/96 68/96 68/96 time (min) 19 17 14 17 17 17

Butadiene 2 (g) 1120 1120 1120 1120 1120 1120 styrene 3 (g) 1412 1412 1412 1412 1412 1412 T (A) / T (E) (° C) 52/76 60/84 73/95 60/84 60/84 60/84 time (min) 22 12 10 12 12 12

Butadiene 3 (g) 1120 1120 1120 1120 1120 1120 styrene 4 (g) 1412 1412 1412 1412 1412 1412 T (A) / T (E) (° C) 54/73 64/83 74/88 64/83 64/83 64/83 time (min) 19 6 26 6 6 6

Styrene 5 (g) 1008 1008 1008 1008 1008 1008 T (A) / T (E) (° C) 60/64 70/76 74/85 70/76 70/76 70/76 time (min) 45 14 14 14 14 14

Mn (g / mol) 117,000 118,000 119,000 79,000 107,000 119,000 Mp (g / mol) 153,000 156,000 158,000 92,000 141,000 158,000 Mw (g / mol) 172,000 176,000 180,000 100,000 159,000 177,000

Ex. 1 Ex. 2 Ex. 3 Ex. 4 Ex. 5 Ex. 6

Tg (° C) -10/75 -13/75 ^• -16/75 -10/70 -12/72 -15/75 latitude (° C) 12/15 10/13 9/12 11/20 11/15 13/15

MVI 9.2 9.0 8.5 60 21 8.6

Table 1 (continued)

Ex. 7 Ex. 8 Ex. 9 Ex. 10 Ex. 11 Ex. 12

THF (ml) 65.8 65.8 65.8 65.8 65.8 65.8 s-BuLi (ml) 42 42 42 42 84 126

Styrene 1 (g) 756 1008 1008 1008 2016 2520

T (A) / T (E) (° C) 30/68 30/70 30/70 30/70 30/76 30/72

Time (min) 30 30 30 30 30 30

Butadiene 1 (g) 1194 1120 1120 1120 1120 1120

Styrene 2 (g) 1506 1412 1412 1519 1412 1412 t

T (A) / T (E) (° C) 66/96 68/96 68/96 70/96 68/96 68/96

Time (min) 18 17 17 17 17 17

Butadiene 2 (g) 1194 1772 2532 1334 1120 1120

Styrene 3 (g) 1506 760-1198 1412 1412

T (A) / T (E) (° C) 58/84 60/89 60/94 60/86 60/84 60/84

Time (min) 13 16 20 13 12 12

Butadiene 3 (g) 1194 1120 1120 1120 1120 1120

Styrene 4 (g) 1506 1412 1412 1412 1412 1412

T (A) / T (E) (° C) 62/83 64/83 64/83 64/83 64/83 64/83

Time (min) 6 6 6 6 6 6

Styrene 5 (g) 756 1008 1008 1008 - -

T (A) / T (E) (° C) 70/78 70/76 70/76 70/76 - -

Time (min) 14 14 14 14 -

(N / mm ² ) Ex. 7 Ex. 8 Ex. 9 Ex. 10 Ex. 11 Ex. 12

Voltage 400% 9.5 9.5 9.2 9.8 7.6 7.2

Voltage 600% - 18.3 18.1 19.1 15.5 14.8

Table 2 (continued): Comparative tests

(N / mm ² ) ABCD

Yield stress 24.5 17.6 32.1 0.6

Breaking stress 17.8 11.0 24.4 13.9

Elongation at break (%) 242 320 22 262

Tension 200% 15.9 10.7-10.7

Voltage 400% - - - -

Voltage 600% - - -

Claims

1. Rubber-elastic block copolymer composed of at least one polymerized units of a vinyl aromatic monomer, a hard phase-forming block A and / or a diene monomer, a first rubber-elastic (soft) phase forming block B and at least one polymerized units of both a vinyl aromatic monomer such as of a diene-containing elastomeric block B / A forming a soft phase, the glass transition temperature T _g of block A above 25 ° C. and that of blocks B and B / A below 25 ° C. and the phase volume ratio of block A to block B / A is selected so that the proportion of the hard phase in the total block copolymer is 1-40% by volume and the proportion by weight of the diene is less than 50% by weight.

2. Block copolymer according to claim 1, characterized in that T _{g of} the hard phase is above 50 ° C and T _{g of} the soft phases is below 5 ° C.

3. Block copolymer according to claim 1, characterized in that the vinyl aromatic monomer is selected from styrene, α-methyl styrene, vinyl toluene and diphenylethylene and the diene from butadiene and isoprene.

4. Block copolymer according to claim 1, characterized in that (optionally second or further) the soft phase is formed from a copolymer of a vinyl aromatic with a diene.

5. Block copolymer according to claim 1, characterized in that (optionally second or further) the soft phase is a random copolymer of vinyl aromatic with the diene.

6. Block copolymer as claimed in claim 1, as is obtained by anionic polymerization, at least the polymerization of the soft phase having been carried out in the presence of a polar cosolvent.

7. Block copolymer according to claim 1, characterized in that several blocks B / A with different molecular weights are present per molecule.

8. Block copolymer according to claim 1, characterized in that several blocks A with different molecular weights are present per molecule.

9. Block copolymer according to claim 1, represented by one of the general formulas 1 to 11

(1) (A-B / A) n;

(2) (A-B / A) n-A; (3) B / A- (A-B / A) n;

(4) X- [(A-B / A) n] m + 1;

(5) X- [(B / A-A) n] m + 1;

(6) X- [(A-B / A) n-A] m + 1;

(7) X- [(B / A-A) n-B / A] m + 1; (8) Y- [(A-B / A) n] m + 1;

(9) Y- [(B / A-A) n] m + 1;

(10) Y- [(A-B / A) n-A] m + 1;

(11) Y- [(B / A-A) n-B / A] m + 1;

where A stands for the vinylaromatic block and B / A for the randomly composed of diene and vinylaromatic units, X is the remainder of an n-functional initiator, Y is the remainder of an m-func ionic coupling agent and m and n are natural numbers from 1 to 10 .

10. Block copolymer according to claim 9 of one of the general formulas AB / AA, X - [- B / AA] ₂ and Y - [- B / AA] ₂ .

11. Block copolymer according to claim 1, the soft phase of which is divided into blocks

(12) (B / A) ι- (B / A) ₂

(13) (B / A) _! - (B / A) ₂ - (B / A) i

(14) (B / A) ι- (B / A) ₂ - (B / A) ₃

whose vinylaromatic / diene ratio in the individual blocks B / A is different or changes continuously within a block within the limits (B / A) ι _→ (B / A) ₂ , the glass transition temperature T _{g of} each sub-block below 25 ° C. lies.

12. Block copolymer according to claim 1, whose (further) soft phase is divided into blocks

(15) B- (B / A)

(16) (B / A) -B- (B / A)

(17) (B / A) ι -B- (B / A)

(18) B- (B / A) i- (B / A) ₂

13. Use of a molding compound containing a block copolymer according to one of the claims for the production of molded parts.

14. Foil, foam, thermoforming, injection molding or profile extrudate from a molding composition according to claim 12.